Book Reveals Inner World Of Abraham Lincoln

November 16, 1994|By STAN SIMPSON; Courant Staff Writer

WINDSOR — He's the guy dishing out the dirt on Abraham Lincoln.

``Honest Abe'' may have been respected and an introspective statesman, but his wife was a shrew and a bully who physically and verbally abused him, Connecticut College history professor Michael Burlingame says.

Burlingame was at the Windsor Public Library Tuesday talking about his new book ``The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln,'' a 362-page examination of the emotional side of the nation's 16th president and how he handled his mid-life crisis.

Burlingame said he culled spicy details about Lincoln from hundreds of interviews done with Lincoln servants, family and friends by biographers and historians.

That research is stored in numerous libraries and institutions across the country, Burlingame said, noting that he has about 1,600 footnotes in his book.

In his 20s and 30s, Burlingame said, Lincoln was a ``political hack'' with little direction.

Early in his political career he was an ``adept practitioner'' of dirty political campaigns and enjoyed mocking the speech, appearance and mannerisms of his political opponents, Burlingame said.

From age 40 to 45, the book says Lincoln dropped out of politics and began to center himself, maturing into a learned person.

The book discusses Lincoln's often tempestuous relationship with his wife, Mary; his estrangement from his father, Tom, and his first son, Robert Todd; his supposed aversion to women; and an explosive temper.

Stephen B. Oates, a University of Massachusetts history professor and Lincoln scholar has derisively called the book ``tabloid history.''

Burlingame, 53, said the information he found is available to anybody willing to do the research.

``It seems incredible that so much new and raw information is available about someone who has been written about so much,'' Burlingame said.

There may have been a reluctance for biographers in the Civil War era to use some of the more embarassing information about Mary Lincoln because she was a woman, he said.

Mary Lincoln supposedly threw coffee in her husband's face, once chased him with a knife and walloped him with books, potatoes and firewood.

Burlingame said the information about Lincoln's private life is not ``just prurient gossip.''

He believes that Lincoln's run for president was a direct result of living with a wife who was nearly intolerable. As a result, Lincoln traveled often, staying away from his house and wife.

Burlingame said Lincoln's awkwardness with women and estrangement from his son correlated to Lincoln's distant relationship with his dad and having his mother die when he was a young boy.

``The central theme is not how neurotic or psychologically damaged he was, but how psychologically strong he was,'' Burlingame said. ``He didn't take criticism personally.''